A number of devices have been developed to facilitate tissue removal during a medical procedure. For example, a Kerrison rongeur device or “Kerrison” can be used for cutting, gouging, or biting bone in a surgical procedure. Kerrisons are often used in orthopedic surgery (e.g., to remove vertebral bone in spinal posterior decompression procedures), in neurosurgery (e.g., to remove bone from the skull), and in many other surgeries such as maxillofacial and podiatric surgery.
Existing Kerrisons generally suffer from poor ergonomics which can create strain, discomfort, or fatigue for the surgeon, prolong the length of a procedure, and/or increase risks for the patient. In particular, the design of the device's handles, the high degree of force required to squeeze the handles, the repeated squeezing required, and the height of the surgeon's hand/forearm during use can all contribute to strain on the surgeon. These issues can be exacerbated by the fact that Kerrisons are often used during the most demanding parts of the surgery, such as when the surgeon is removing bone adjacent to the spinal cord or nerve roots, when a high degree of focus and mental stress is put on the surgeon.
Use of existing Kerrisons can also be inefficient and distracting, since they must be repeatedly removed from the surgical site, handed off to an assistant, manually cleared of excised tissue, handed back to the surgeon, and reinserted to the surgical site. The surgeon is thus required to continually shift focus away from the surgical site, and then refocus on the surgical site and re-locate the device to an area that is often very close to sensitive neural or vascular tissue. The surgical site can also be deep down a narrow cannula, which can make it even more difficult to re-locate the area where the device was being used before being removed to clear excised tissue.
There is a continual need for improved tissue removal devices and methods.